From Pain to Gain
by Zam the hedgehog
Summary: Her world was brought to darkness...can he bring her the happiness she once had? (Spiderman X Batgirl)
1. Tragedy

Pain...

an unpleasant feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli, such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting alcohol on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone"."Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.

Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease.

Depression...

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of people can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless,worried, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, hurt, or restless. They may lose interest in activities that once were pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions, and may contemplate, attempt, or commit suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, loss of energy, or aches, pains, or digestive problems may also be present.

Depressed mood is not always a psychiatric disorder. It may also be a normal reaction to certain life events, or something similar...

To her, those two similar but different things made up her physical description. Barbara Gordon felt she was just Pain and Depression, nothing else. None of her usual cheery personality and sassy demeanor was left. The only thing that reminded anyone of the teenager she was before was her still strong desire to oppose crime in Gotham. This desire was the cause of her grey mood and personality now...Barbara recalled this as she had gotten in 39 minutes ago from a patrol as Batgirl, and was currently sitting in the bathroom and quietly sobbing. A thing she did for a while in the past two months. Even Batman couldn't blame her for doing so. After what happened, she had every right to shed tears.

"Bring! Bring!"

She sniffled, and hesitantly glanced at her small cellphone. It was Alfred.

"Miss Gordon? Hello?"

"...A-Alfred?" Barbara wished her voice wasn't so hoarse.

"Miss Gordon! I terribly sorry, I just wished to check on you and make certain you were fine!"

"I'm...n-not..." She answered truthfully. Silence was all she heard for a while.

"...I know, Madame...I know..." She could hear his voice cracking like hers. " I wish...I...I wish there was...Something I could say to you...something to..."

Somehow, a weak and gloomy smile pulled her lips apart. "*sniff*... th-that's alright, A-Alfred...I...thank y-you...for checking on m-me..."

"Anytime, Miss Gordon..." She could imagine his equally sad smile. " I...um,I have to l-leave..."

Part of her didn't want him to leave her..."...oh...um, alright..."

"...g-good bye..Miss Gordon..."

"...g-good bye, Alfred..."

* * *

Barbara gazed at herself in the mirror. She was still seventeen, so people would notice a younger body instead of the young woman she'd been focused on becoming. The girl could see dark rings sitting like a pie on a counter table, and her once mesmerizingly beautiful emerald eyes were bloodshot and dull. Her shoulders and posture were slumped slightly, and her hair was surprisingly okay in certain terms. Barbara trudged towards her bed with her mind exploding with random thoughts on them...She stared up, and as her eyes started to shut...

She felt a strange, warm crackling feeling wash over her...


	2. The Jammies

'Just my luck...' Spidey thought. 'Just my stinkin luck...'

The wallcrawler barely dodged the spiked disc that was sent flying by none other than good ol whirlwind. Spider-Man was the only one to fight him because of a bet he lost with White Tiger. She was far too smart sometimes. Anywho, he landed a punch before getting punched himself.

"Geez! For a guy named whirlwind, you sure don't know how to knock the wind out of someone!" Spider-Man quipped.

"Do you ever shut up?!"

"Not until 10:00." He somersaulted over his head, and kicked him in the back. Whirlwind stumbled forward, until his forehead gave a nearby pole a high five. Spider-Man triumphantly smiled as he slumped to the ground, then bowed like a ninja...or something.

"You have done well, my pupil. But you lack true discipline!" Spider-Man said. "Well, it's been fun! But I gots to go!"

Spider-Man crawled up a wall before leaping from the edge and firing a webline. He swung down between an alley and released to soar thru the air for a moment. It was in these moments that Peter loved everything about being Spider-Man. Sure, he was often misunderstood and never impressed any ladies(he had no idea why), but at least he got the best part: saving lives. And that was all that mattered to Peter.

That, and the small spidersense that tingled.

He looked above himself as he swung low, and gasped. A part of the sky seemed to rip open with a green glow and pulsate. The next thing he knew, the rip was gone, he was confused greatly, and someone had fallen on top of him. Spider-Man focused on that last one, and sat up in pain.

Barbara groaned as well and pushed herself up. What was with the rush of air? Air doesn't just rush past one when one slept. And why did the ground she fell on go 'oof!'?

Peter blinked as he scanned the source of his pain. There was a redheaded girl, possibly his age, rubbing her forehead. She was slightly attractive looking, and her hair was poofed up in a funny way. The oddest thing was, she was wearing blackish purple pajamas with footies.

Barbara saw some guy in a spandex suit of some sort. It was red in some areas, blue in the others, with black webs sprinkled about. Two oval shaped white lenses gazed at her with sort of an innocent and friendly look, somehow blinking now and then.

The two stared intensely at each other, not knowing who would speak first.

"...uh...nice jammies?"

'Nice jammies...?'

Barbara blinked. "...thanks..."

'Nice jammies...?'

"Your...welcome." he replied.

'NICE JAMMIES?! WHAT KIND OF IDIOT AM I?!'

"Wait..." The girl glanced around. " where am I?"

"Somewhere near queens, I think." He said nonchalantly. The girl stared at him as if he'd grown an extra foot spontaneously.

"What?"

"Well, we're on 5052nd street, so I guess I was-"

"No." She interrupted. "Queens?"

"Yeah." He said. "In New York."

"What the heck is New York?"

Spider-Man was silent. He guessed that since she fell out of a portal not too long ago, she had no idea where she was and would be extremely lost if he wasn't here. What should he do with her, then? She had no idea where she was, so she wouldn't have a place to stay. Bringing her to his home was out of the question, since Aunt May would find it...odd.

He did have one place though.

"Do you trust me?" He asked suddenly.

"...No, not really. I just met you..." She stood to her feet, as did Spider-Man.

"Well, I'm your best chance for getting to a place that can tell you more about this...place." He finished awkwardly and fired a webline. The girl looked on in awe for a few seconds, until he held out a hand to her. "I swear I'm going to help you find out what's going on, okay? Oh. And I'm Spider-Man by the way...what's,uh,your name?"

The girl hesitantly stared at his hand and very slowly, she took it. "I-I'm...Barbara..."

"Barbara? ...Best name I've heard all day."

* * *

"Ha Ha! I can't believe he thought that would work!" Nova chuckled as he listened to White tiger's story, While Iron fist and Luke cage guffawed.

"You would not believe how shocked he looked!" White Tiger boasted. " he was so sure!"

"Hey! There he is now!" Luke Cage pointed at a silhouette swinging by the Helicarrier window. The team rushed out as Spider-Man swung onto the deck.

"Dude!" Nova began. " we just heard about...uuuuh, who is that?"

Spider-Man glanced down at Barbara, who was giving Nova and the others an amusing look of curiosity. "A new pal. I'll explain later, right now I need to see Fury."

"Already here."

A dark skinned man with a bald head, stopwatch, black trenchcoat,a moustache and beard, as well as a hard look on his face was right behind Nova. He jumped in Surprise as Nick Fury walked past towards Spider-Man.

"Alright, Kid. Who's this?"


	3. Gloom

"A random hole just...opened up?" Phil coulson asked.

"Yeah." Barbara answered in a gloomy fashion. "And I don't know how to get back..."

"...Anything else you can tell us, Miss Gordon?" Fury asked.

Barbara stared down at her feet, deep in thought. She could tell them about her heroine identity. It would be against everything she'd been told...but this was a different universe. Maybe she didn't have anything to fear from them...

"...I guess...back where I'm from...I was...like that spider guy..." She shrugged.

"You have powers?"

"No...but I'm a hero, I guess. Like him. I just trained myself to my limits and then...pushed past them. I became this heroine named: Batgirl."

"Batgirl?...well, it's better than buggirl." Phil coulson shrugged, receiving an odd stare from fury. "You were the only superhero?"

"No." She shook her head, then brushed some scarlet bangs from her vision. "There's a man I work with named Batman. He doesn't have powers. There's a justice league that he's apart of..."

"Like the Avengers?" Fury asked. Seeing her confusion, he added:"we also have a team of superheroes."

"Oh. There's a superman and a Wonder woman and they have powers..."

"Okay." Fury gave a rare look of worry to Coulson, who did the same. "We'll...do what we can..."

Barbara nodded, felt herself sobbing at his tone of voice in saying that...

* * *

"And that's when we got here!" Spider-Man finished dramatically.

"Geez. Didn't know you'd be picking up chicks from the sky, dude!" Nova smirked as always.

"Her arrival here does make you wonder about the farthest reaches of our universe, her universe and the never-ending Multiverse that surrounds us."

Awkward silence.

"...but anyhow, she seems nice." He added.

"Yeah, I guess so. But She seems kind've...sad." Peter rubbed his head. White tiger rolled her eyes.

"Gee, you're right Pete. After being yanked from her world, she's supposed to be reeeal HAPPY."

"No...like something happened to her...in her past..." Spider-Man explained slightly awkwardly. "And...she's thought about it again..."

"Oh." White Tiger fell serious too. "How bad do you think?"

"It's _nothing_.

Everyone sharply turned around and saw Barbara standing there stiffly, holding in tears with all her might. She had a slight glare, as if telling them not to bring it up again. And from the sad look that was also on her face, they wouldn't for a while. She sat down at the table next to them.

"...…...…...I'm Barbara..." was all she said to them.

Since everyone seemed too worried or something like that to say something, Spider-Man waved. "Uh, yeah. You told me, and I told you. Any who, this is White Tiger, Nova,Iron fist and Luke cage."

"Oh." She said, her gloomyness starting to drown things. "Nice to meet you all...I think I'll be working beside you as well."


	4. Batgirl

'So, a fairly hot but gloomy girl fell out of the sky recently.' Spidey thought to himself, imaging a mini version of him catching a dull girl out the sky. 'And I took her to the Helicarrier to get checked out and stuff. Turns out she's a superhero! Now I just have to get around the fact that she doesn't have any superpowers!'

"Spidey!" Luke cage interrupted his imagination. "Are you even paying attention?!"

"Huh? Oh yeah...did you say something?"

"No. Just making sure." He grumbled. "And she'll be out to show the costume they made for her."

And right on cue, she did. She wears a very dark gray form fitting Kelvlar costume with a black bat symbol, and black padding at the abdomen and lower back. She also has black boots, gloves and a black cape and cowl.

"It's pretty cool!" Nova exclaimed. Batgirl silently gazed at him.

"Uh, thanks." She shrugged. "I didn't think I'd helping to fight crime. But it's the only thing I can do for the time being."

"So, shall we?" Iron fist asked everyone.

"I think we shall, fisty!" Spidey declared.


End file.
